RAILforum: Around the country

This is topic Around the country - July 15-Aug 6 in forum Trip Reports at RAILforum.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.railforum.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/44/22.html

Posted by Dave Burden (Member # 88) on :

I'm going to write a full travelouge, but here's the short version:

My wife, myself and our two kids, ages 9 and 11 went on a 3 week rail tour of the US.

Crescent, July 15, Atlanta - New Orleans,
2 std rooms. The train was a little late
arriving into ATL, but on time into New Orleans.

Sunset Ltd, July 16-18, New Orleans - LA,
1 std, 1 dlx room. A few hours late leaving New Orleans, and gradually adding to that total along the way, Nice scenery across the southwest. The train hit a car on the tracks (not at a crossing) just west of Demming, NM. The driver was out of the car so no injuries, but it took 1.5 hours to get everything cleaned up and back underway. We eventually arrived in LA over 10 hours late, a little after 4pm, instead of 6am. It impacted our
sight seeing, but that was all.

Coast Starlight, July 20-22*, LA-Seattle, Family room. Nice accomodations, but the engine kept having problems starting at each station so we lost lots of time. We also had a problem with a few passengers just before San Jose which required the police to board and remove a few of them. We had wonderful views of Oregon because of the delays, but ended up spending an extra night on the train. We should have arrived in Seattle on the 21st, but arrived at 7am on the 22nd. Our late arrival caused the southbound Starlight on the 22nd to depart late. We did avoid staying at the Pioneer Square hotel because of the delay.

Empire Builder - July 22-24, Seattle-Chicago, 1 std, 1 dlx room. After the Sunset and Coast Starlight delays, this trip was almost boring... Except for the scenery, that is! It ran on time with only 1 stop to check the train after a detector malfunctioned.

Lake Shore Ltd - July 25-26, Chicago-Boston, 2 std rooms. On time, but had to be bussed from Albany to Boston due to track work by CSX.

Northeast Direct - Aug 1, Boston-DC, coach. Reminded us why we had sleepers the rest of the way. Actually not that bad since we managed to get 4 seats across from each other. Arrived on time into DC.

Crescent - Aug 5-6, DC-Atlanta, 2 std rooms. Ran on time, but mosly a night time trip.

We took lots of notes and pictures and I had a scanner as well so we could hear what was going on throughout the trip.

Dave

Posted by reggierail (Member # 26) on :

Sounds like a great trip & I'm sure lots of people would like to hear more. Hope you're nurturing a couple of rail travel advocates in your 2 kids. I become a kid when I get on the train. FYI you can also post a trip report on the trainweb site, although as busy as they are it takes sometime. Yours Reggie

------------------